T-Mobile

This week, AT&T announced that it will begin throttling data speeds for 3G mobile network subscribers, even for users with unlimited data plans. AT&T is not the first telecom to take such measures — Verizon and Virgin Mobile have already started reducing speeds for their heaviest data users. If you’ve ever used a mobile music app like Pandora, Rhapsody or Spotify, you know how quickly you can go over these arbitrary limits. read more

Dozens of groups have voiced opposition to the merger between the second-largest mobile carrier in the U.S. and the fourth-largest. The merger would reduce competition in the mobile market and likely drive up prices, said critics including Public Knowledge, the Rural Telecommunications Group and the NoChokePoints Coalition, a coalition of telecom customers, consumer groups and small carriers concerned with mobile backhaul rates.

The merged company would be “contrary to the express policies of Congress and the Commission to rely on competition rather than regulation to protect consumers and spur deployment of new services,” Public Knowledge and the Future of Music Coalition wrote in a May 31 filing to the FCC.

The Center for Media Justice (CMJ) — a grassroots media policy organization working to strengthen movements for racial justice, economic equity, and human rights — has teamed up with FMC — a national non-profit research, education and advocacy organization for musicians — to issue a pair of informational briefs regarding the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.

AT&T is currently seeking government approval to buy T-Mobile, which would give one company nearly half of the wireless market in the United States. The briefs describe the negative impact the merger would have on innovation, creativity and speech, while providing creative communities a way to better understand and engage on the issue. read more

Our friends Ozomatli, known for their eclectic, genre-bending sound and outspoken approach to civic engagement and activism, recently shared their thoughts on the AT&T-T-Mobile merger. Ozomatli are an LA-based band currently serving as U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors and artist advisors to FMC. The band will also be in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 25to play a can’t miss one-off show with the National Symphony Orchestra Pops at the Kennedy Center.read more

You may have heard about the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, which would give the combined companies a 43 percent combined share of the mobile market. Were the deal to go through, AT&T and Verizon would control around 70 percent of the market for cell phone subscriptions. That’s a lot of power in not so many hands.

This merger is not just about phone service. Mobile handsets are fast becoming one of the main ways people connect to the internet, and this trend is only going to continue.

So why should musicians and music entrepreneurs care? Lots of reasons, actually. read more